- New Zealand: Unusually gloomy Kiwis deliver tightest election in years
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“New Zealand voted in a new government as fog choked the capital, Wellington, on Saturday – and the mood was as palpable as the grey weather. ‘It’s pretty flat,’ 21-year-old Imogen Vlutger says. ‘There’s this kind of apathy and a bit of dread.’ ‘Tired. I think we’re all tired,’ Symone, 28, admits. ‘I didn’t even vote,’ one man in his 40s sheepishly confesses. He couldn’t bring himself to tick any of the boxes, he explains, declining to chat further. ‘Wellington’s a bit of a bubble,’ another voter says, expressing a caveat I heard often, before describing feeling disillusioned. But polling shows this is a pervasive sentiment across the country: the national mood is low and faith in politics is even lower. More than half the country no longer sees it as a land of opportunity, a recent study found, while a similar portion fears that the future looks even worse.” (11/07/26)
- AK: Governor gives vote count update in “very close” Senate race
Source: The Hill
“Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) provided an update on the Last Frontier’s closely watched Senate race as vote counting continues in the state. ‘It’s very close,’ the Alaska Republican said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on WABC radio giving an update on what lies ahead in the process of counting votes. He said that there is a ‘big batch’ of votes coming in next week on Nov. 13, followed by a ‘smaller batch’ on Nov. 15. The final count will happen on Nov. 25. … The race has been neck-to-neck with Peltola taking a slight lead over the incumbent with a little over 48 percent of the votes, according to Decision Desk HQ. Sullivan, on the other hand, has secured 47.9 percent of votes with 70 percent of the expected votes counted.” (11/08/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6206385-alaska-dunleavy-vote-update/
- Yemen: Houthis say at least 25 killed in Saudi air strike
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Media linked to the Houthi movement in Yemen say that at least 25 people, including women and children, have been killed in airstrikes by Saudi Arabia. There has been no comment from the Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognised government in Yemen. Live video footage on Al Masirah – a television station run by the Houthis – has shown rescuers pulling bodies out of the rubble of several buildings in al-Shariyah, a town to the east of the capital, Sanaa. The bodies of young children can be seen among those dug out from the ruins. The television station has also shown a number of injured people being carried on stretchers to hospital. Saba news agency, which is also run by the Houthis, said the attack was carried out by Saudi Arabia.” (11/07/26)
- South Africa: ANC faces coalition scramble after electoral rout as control of key metros slips away
Source: Daily Maverick [South Africa]
“The African National Congress (ANC) faces a difficult balancing act after suffering major losses in the 2026 local government elections: regrouping quickly to negotiate from a position of strength, while determining which parties to partner with to retain municipal influence. The party has been pushed out of the leading position in several key metropolitan councils, including Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, where the Democratic Alliance (DA) has emerged as the leading party. In eThekwini, the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party leads, while the ANC remains the top party in Buffalo City. Mangaung also faces tight contention, making securing a governing majority a tough task for the party. The results emphasise the scale of the ANC’s electoral setback and the challenge confronting its leadership as it prepares to enter coalition negotiations across the country.” (11/07/26)
- MS: Scott Colom & Black Mississippians on cusp of Senate history, as vote count stretches on
Source: SFGate
“Democrat Scott Colom hasn’t won Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race, but the local prosecutor was welcomed as a historic figure Friday as he strolled through the Farish Street business district where civil rights leaders once organized. ‘It’s so wonderful! It’s so wonderful to have Scott Colom as our representative,’ said Maati Jone Primm, who owns Marshall’s Music & Bookstore in Jackson. The state is still tallying ballots that could make Colom the first [b]lack senator from this Deep South state since post-Civil War Reconstruction. The possibility of Colom defeating Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith puts many [b]lack voters somewhere between cautious optimism and outright celebration in a state where nearly 40% of the population is [b]lack but the top representation for generations has been white.” (11/07/26)
- UFC’s Dana White says he will meet with Trump Monday over offer to be White House press secretary
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has offered the job of White House press secretary to his friend and UFC boss Dana White, an announcement unconventional even for the norm-busting president. White said Saturday that he plans to meet with Trump on Monday at the White House. … White, who was in London on Saturday for a boxing event, was asked at a news conference about Trump’s post and responded by saying that he planned to fly to Washington right after and meet with Trump on Monday. When asked how he would balance the job with the current positions he has in the fighting world, White seemed confused by the question and then said, ‘Yeah, I got a lot of jobs already.'” (11/08/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/11/08/nx-s1-6033900/ufc-dana-white-trump-white-house-press-secretary
- Italy: Foreign minister says hackers leaked his personal data
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says he has been targeted by ‘cyber-criminals’ who published his personal data online because of his country’s support for Ukraine. ‘For days now, cyber-criminals have been publishing my personal data on the dark web and seeking further information, effectively exposing me to new threats and intimidation,’ Tajani wrote on X. He did not specify the nature of the threats, but said the hackers were also targeting his family. The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that is not indexed by common search engines and can only be accessed with specialist software. ‘Our position on Ukraine is the political reason I have been targeted,’ Tajani said.” (11/07/26)
- Paraguay: Pena under house arrest over bank crisis
Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Paraguay’s Senate on Friday impeached President Santiago Pena over a banking crisis that left millions of people unable to access their deposits. Senators voted overwhelmingly to remove Pena for misconduct in office. The move cleared the way for Vice President Pedro Alliana to succeed him. He will serve the rest of the presidential term, which ends in August 2028. Pena had already resigned on Thursday, but by impeaching and convicting him instead of accepting his resignation, senators stripped him of the lifetime Senate seat and immunity granted to former presidents, leaving him vulnerable to prosecution. Following the Senate vote, prosecutors ordered the arrest of the ousted president alongside former central bank chief Carlos Carvallo as part of a criminal investigation. Officials later said Pena was placed under house arrest pending a decision by the public prosecutor’s office on the final charges against him.” (11/07/26)
- NC: Man says ChatGPT helped his wife try to poison him
Source: SFGate
“On the morning of July 10, 2025, North Carolina resident James Gates suddenly became violently ill, he said. He said he was struck with abdominal pain, uncontrollable shaking and weakness and wasn’t able to leave his couch for nearly three days. But it wasn’t until a couple of months later that Gates suspected he had been poisoned, according to a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI he filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on Oct. 14, which said that in September of last year he found a handwritten note referencing chemicals and dosage instructions, allegedly written by his estranged wife. The top of the note read ‘clear all convos’ and ‘log out of chat GPT’, Gates’ complaint alleged. The Charlotte District Attorney’s Office charged Cheryl Gates with attempted murder …. However, prosecutors dismissed all criminal charges in April due to insufficient evidence, Cheryl Gates said in a statement via her attorney Jennifer Tosi to SFGATE.” (11/06/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/chatgpt-poison-lawsuit-22517428.php
- Miller replaces Wiles as White House chief of staff
Source: Associated Press
“President Donald Trump said Friday that Stephen Miller was replacing Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, installing as his closest adviser a loyal, combative bulldog for his ‘America First’ [sic] agenda as the president prepares to stare down a newly empowered Democratic Congress next year. Miller, long a member of Trump’s tight inner circle, is a key architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies. He is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, joining his long-shot 2016 presidential campaign as a speechwriter. He most recently has served as White House deputy chief of staff for policy and oversees a broad portfolio, though he is best known for his role in Trump’s immigration policy.” (11/06/26)
https://apnews.com/article/susie-wiles-trump-miller-midterms-95690fe076f6bb8cfe2bf77435a1910d
- Faster, Pussycat! Annual Fundraiser!
Hey, everyone …
Today is NOT a “Firehose Friday” at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper — we’ve got full 60-item email/social media editions for you. But we also have EXTRA content (another 20+ news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links) for you here at the web edition.
Yesterday was a “zero-dollar day” in our annual fundraiser. Our total remains at $1,151.50.
Our goal is $5,503. Once we’ve raised the first half ($2,751.50), supporter GL has pledged to “match funds” for the other half. We’re $1,600 short of — only 41% of the way to — the goal.
This weekend, help us out with a “great leap forward” to the $1,500 mark. If we raise $348.50 between now and Monday, we’ll be at $1,500 (and 54% of the way home). So …
PLEASE SUPPORT RRND/FND!
… and then have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Paraguay: President tries to quit, parliament insists on impeachment
Source: Brussels Signal [Belgium]
“Paraguay’s President has tried to resign over the collapse of a digital bank that left millions of depositors unable to reach their money. Lawmakers have refused to let him go. Santiago Peña announced his resignation yesterday in a video posted on social media. He said he was acting for the sake of the country’s stability, social peace and its democratic institutions, and apologised to Paraguayans for any failings on his part. Minutes later the Chamber of Deputies voted 78-0 to impeach him, sending the case to the Senate. It shelved a parallel motion against Vice President Pedro Alliana, who is next in line. A joint session of Congress called to accept the resignation then collapsed. … A president who steps down normally becomes a senator for life with immunity from prosecution, a status that removal from office would strip away.” (11/06/26)
- CA: Newsom commutes all of state’s death sentences
Source: NBC News
“Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted all California death sentences on Thursday, declaring that ‘state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with’ values in America’s most populous state. In an open letter to constituents, Newsom said taking this step is ‘among the most difficult of my career.’ ‘I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values,’ he said. California has not put a prisoner to death since Jan. 17, 2006 when Clarence Ray Allen was put to death via lethal injection.” (11/05/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-gov-gavin-newsom-commutes-death-sentences-rcna607727
- Massie Gives Hegseth a Choice: Resignation or Impeachment
Source: Common Dreams
“Republican US Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said Wednesday that Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth, the most prominent cheerleader and architect of the Trump administration’s illegal war on Iran, will face an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives – unless he submits his resignation first. ‘There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns,’ Massie, who unveiled eight impeachment articles against the Pentagon secretary in September, wrote following Democrats’ rout of the GOP in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Massie is expected to force a vote on the articles (which accuse Hegseth of extrajudicial killings, waging wars without congressional authorization, and kidnapping a sovereign foreign leader) as soon as next week.” (11/05/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/pete-hegseth-impeachment-massie-2678297497
- Nigeria: Court nullifies presidential contender’s candidacy two months before election
Source: Associated Press
“A Nigerian court disqualified a leading presidential candidate Thursday, complicating the electoral process two months before the election. A Federal High Court judge in Abuja, the country’s capital, ruled that the leadership of the African Democratic Congress, one of the three major parties contesting the January 2027 election, was illegally constituted and therefore voided the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar. Earlier in the year, a court ordered the party deregistered for failing to meet constitutional requirements, but an appeals court overturned the ruling. The party and government critics say the case was orchestrated by the ruling party.” (11/05/26)
https://apnews.com/article/nigeria-election-atiku-abubakar-court-e37403f0930a889b9e48b4e93eca2fd3
- Melania Trump calls for peace at meeting with Russian, Ukrainian officials
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“United States First Lady Melania Trump has urged Russia and Ukraine to build on a recent localised ceasefire and seek a more ‘enduring’ peace, as she hosted officials from both countries at the White House. Melania Trump spoke on Thursday at an event that the White House said is believed to be ‘the first time in American history that a First Lady has personally brought representatives of two nations at war to the White House for diplomacy’. Those attending included Kirill Dmitriev, a special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin; Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner; David Arakhamia, leader of the Servant of the People party in Ukraine’s parliament; and Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s parliamentary human rights commissioner.” (11/05/26)
- Israel: Joint List says it will back Eisenkot to form next regime
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The Joint List alliance of Arab-led parties says it will back Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to form a new government after last week’s election. ‘The Joint List announced today, Thursday, that it will inform the President of the State, Isaac Herzog, this evening of its decision to recommend that Gadi Eisenkot be tasked with forming the government,’ the alliance said in a statement. Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament in last week’s general election, a result that could give them significant influence over the formation of the next government. Once the Joint List’s 11 lawmakers formally submit their recommendation, Eisenkot is expected to have the backing of 67 lawmakers, exceeding the 61-seat majority threshold in the Knesset.” (11/05/26)
- CA: Raman defeats Bass to become next LA mayor
Source: Los Angeles Times
“Nithya Raman will be the next mayor of Los Angeles, making her the first challenger to defeat an incumbent L.A. mayor in more than two decades. Mayor Karen Bass called Raman Thursday to concede the race, after the latest tally from Tuesday’s election showed Raman with 52% of the vote compared to 48% for Bass, with 76% of the expected votes counted. … Raman and Bass were locked in a tight and contentious race up until election day, with final polling in the race showing the second-term council member and the incumbent mayor each with support from 40% of Angelenos while 19% of the electorate remained undecided. But a blue wave across the country that toppled Republicans in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives buoyed Raman’s campaign against Bass from the left.” (11/05/26)
- UK: Brand Found Guilty of Rape and Sexual Assault
Source: Variety
“Russell Brand, the former actor and comedian, was convicted Thursday on three counts of sexual assault and one count of rape in his London criminal trial. He was found not guilty of two other rape charges and a count of attempted indecent assault. … the judge denied the application to extend bail and remanded him into custody until Monday, when he will return to receive his sentence. In the U.K., a rape conviction can result in up to 19 years in prison and potentially even a life sentence, depending on the seriousness of the offense. The maximum sentence for sexual assault is 10 years.” (11/05/26)
https://variety.com/2026/tv/global/russell-brand-verdict-guilty-rape-sexual-assault-1236937565/
- US Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Fall To 189,000
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment slipped to a 57-year last week as layoffs remained low against the backdrop of a resilient labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 189,000 for the week ended October 31, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 196,000 claims for the latest week. Claims matched the 189,000 level touched in mid-July, which was the lowest reading since 1969. They have stayed mostly below 200,000 since mid-September.” (11/05/26)
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article317939510.html
- Resign, Mr President
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan“You have hurt your allies more than your foes. You’ve discredited the religious right more thoroughly than Jimmy Swaggart ever could. You gave the neocons the kiss of death, destroyed the Israel alliance, while presiding over a wave of foul antisemitism — right and left. You made fools of those earnestly trying to build a new right-of-center coalition. The National Conservatives and the post-liberals and the Claremonsters and the AIPAC loonies all tried to find some string of policy coherence, and today? Well, they all look like idiots, and some of them are figuring that out. There is no coherent thread that connects the past ten years except your ego, stupidity, and cruelty. And deep down, you know it.” (11/06/26)
- Late-Night Comedy or DNC Propaganda
Source: American Greatness
by Christian Toto“Come back, Johnny Carson! Late-night TV no longer resembles the laughs-first model perfected by The Tonight Show legend and, later, Jay Leno. It’s all about pushing progressive talking points, often shoving comedy to the exits. A new study by the conservative NewsBusters highlights just how imbalanced late-night television has become in the Age of Kimmel. The study found that 87 percent of jokes that targeted senatorial candidates drew satirical blood against Republicans. The time period? Peak campaign season: September 8 through October 29. That’s no accident. Meanwhile, Democrats running for the Senate endured just seven jokes in toto.” (11/06/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/11/06/late-night-comedy-or-dnc-propaganda/
- When the Watchdogs Are Silenced: India’s Crackdown on Those Documenting Online Censorship
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Jillian C York“On November 3, our colleagues at the Software Freedom Law Center, India (SFLC.in) received notifications from X that the Delhi Police had issued takedown requests targeting 42 URLs. Among the accounts and posts targeted were those belonging to SFLC.in, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), and X account @geoblockedindia, as well as posts documenting legal notices and instances of online censorship. Takedown requests targeting SFLC.in and other digital rights groups threaten not only their work, but the public’s ability to know when and how online speech is being restricted.” (11/06/26)
- Your smartphone will set you free. That’s the problem.
Source: Washington Post
by August Lamm“A common complaint from recent dumbphone converts is that the switch has made them more reliant on others. Without a smartphone, it becomes necessary to ask for directions, weather, transit times and other information that was once easily accessed online. But why is interdependence a bad thing? In the depths of what has been dubbed a ‘loneliness epidemic,’ with friendship rates at an all-time low and screen time at an all-time high, the solution is not to become more self-reliant but to reinforce our social fabric through shared responsibility. I have lived without a smartphone for the past four years, and in that time I have grown comfortable depending on friends and even strangers to help me navigate an increasingly digital world.” (11/08/26)
- Republicans’ Midterm Wipeout Reignites the War Over Tariffs
Source: Washington Sun
by Jeff Stein“Trump’s tariff embrace has represented a revolution within the Republican Party. But even when skeptical, GOP lawmakers have begrudgingly gone along with the president for much of the last decade, wary of crossing the most popular figure in their party on one of his top priorities. Other Republicans came to agree with the president that insulating American firms from international competition could help rebuild domestic industry. Traditional conservatives are now optimistic that the party’s midterm catastrophe will mark the end of that era. A CNBC poll found 64% of voters believed Trump’s tariffs hurt their local economy, whereas just 14% said it helped. A Wall Street Journal analysis of AdImpact data also found Republicans spent $0 this campaign cycle on tariffs, either for or against. Democrats devoted $58.3 million to bashing the Trump policy.” (11/06/26)
- What’s a Rich Man to Do?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Just because someone is the CEO of a major corporation does not mean that he advocates a free society—even when he makes millions of dollars a year.” (11/06/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/whats-a-rich-man-to-do/
- Trump Failed to MAGA
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“When Trump won the presidency in 2024, there were high hopes among his MAGA supporters that this time around, he would succeed in MAGA. They looked on him as the man on the white horse — the man who, if given free rein, would restore America to greatness. In fact, for the past two years, Trump has enjoyed extraordinary freedom to do pretty much whatever he wants. … None of this proclivity toward dictatorial power has made America great again, unless, of course, one defines ‘greatness’ as living under a powerful, tyrannical welfare-warfare state rather than in a free, peaceful, prosperous society characterized by a limited-government republic.” (11/06/26)
- Corporations Are Pretending to Reform Themselves
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen“While everyone was refreshing early election returns and exit polls and turnout models on Tuesday, something very unusual happened: A monopolist broke itself up. Health conglomerate CVS, the seventh-largest U.S. company by revenue, decided to split off its consumer-facing in-store and mail-order pharmacy business from its Aetna insurance and Caremark pharmacy benefit management (PBM) side. When asked about it on CNBC, CVS chair and CEO David Joyner said that government regulatory pressure played a role. ‘What you see in the regulatory environment is clearly one of the things that we need to make sure we’re navigating,’ Joyner said. This is not, however, an unalloyed victory over the forces of capital—and if you dig into the fine print, it’s not much of a victory at all.” (11/06/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/11/06/corporations-are-pretending-to-reform-themselves/
- The New Congress and Ukraine
Source: The Next Move
by Jay Nordlinger“Remember the Ukrainians, and their daily acts of heroism.” (11/06/26)
- America Did Not Vote for Woke 2.0
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm“Voters don’t want far-left policies. They just really, really hate Republican ones.” (11/06/26)
https://reason.com/2026/11/06/america-did-not-vote-for-woke-2-0/
- America’s Backlash Against Oligarchy
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“The midterm result was a tale of many backlashes. There was the backlash of erstwhile Trump voters, particularly young white males, against high gasoline prices and the Iran War. There was the backlash of Hispanic voters against ICE and Trump’s horrific deportation policy. There was the backlash of Black voters against Republicans’ gerrymandering to negate their votes and Trump’s open racism. There was the backlash of women against the destruction of abortion rights and suppression of the Epstein files. There was a backlash of ordinary families against the loss of healthcare coverage. There was a general backlash against Trump’s bottomless corruption and lies. And there was a backlash of patriotic Americans against Trump’s bromance with Putin. Yet one of the most stunning blows was against the class of oligarchs, whom voters reasonably believe have been major enablers Trump and the Republicans, allowing them to inflict significant economic, social and strategic harm the country.” (11/06/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/americas-backlash-against-oligarchy
- A New Factory Isn’t Necessarily a Sign of Growth
Source: Independent Institute
by Randy Simmons & Diana W Thomas“In 1989 The Economist described a Soviet bus factory whose workers took sledgehammers to newly manufactured trucks. The bus factory needed only the truck chassis, but government rules required the truck factory to supply the whole vehicle, most of which the bus makers would destroy. Complying with the rules meant producing things only to smash them. The workers and managers understood the waste, but changing government standards was harder than dismantling trucks. Individually sensible responses to political directives produced collectively senseless results. Keep that factory in mind when considering Audi’s proposed $4-billion assembly plant in Georgia.” (11/06/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/11/06/new-factory-isnt-necessarily-sign-of-growth/
- Facebook as Scapegoat
Source: Law & Liberty
by Valerie Pavilonis“Was there ever a ‘Social Reckoning?'” (11/06/26)
- The Brilliant but Neglected Novels of Garet Garrett
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker“One of the best nonfiction books to appear following the onset of the Great Depression was by the financial journalist Garet Garrett (1878–1954). It is called A Bubble That Broke the World (1931), and it was a bestseller. His analysis was exactly right. This was not a crisis of capitalism, he wrote, but of postwar credit expansions and imbalances. The economic downturn represented the coming due of the bill, and a cry for rebalancing production, consumption, savings, and interest rates in the US and all over the industrialized world. If Garrett is known at all today, it is by those who are captivated by the handful of intellectuals who wrote in opposition to the New Deal planning state and the regimentation of national life that it brought about. They were a rare breed, and largely forgotten. Aside from that, there is much more to Garrett than people know.” (11/06/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-brilliant-but-neglected-novels-of-garet-garrett/
- Time for Supreme Court to fix “race neutral” discrimination
Source: Fox News
by Steven D Anderson“The Supreme Court has made clear that racial discrimination has no place in public school admissions. But when schools hide discrimination behind ‘race-neutral policies’, lower courts have let them get away with it — as long as the targeted racial group isn’t hurt too much. On Oct. 19, the court agreed to hear a case brought by parents in Montgomery County, Md., challenging an admissions policy designed to reduce Asian American enrollment at the county’s magnet middle schools. At stake is a fundamental question: Does the Constitution protect students as individuals, or do their rights depend on how others of their race perform? With this case, the Supreme Court could reverse a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals precedent that Justice Alito once called ‘flagrantly wrong’ and ‘a virus that may spread if not promptly eliminated’.” (11/06/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/steven-d-anderson-time-supreme-court-fix-race-neutral-discrimination
- The French Revolt Against Fiscal Reality
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul Mueller“France is the canary in Europe’s debt coal mine. Voters resist spending restraint even as the cost of postponing reform grows.” (11/06/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-french-revolt-against-fiscal-reality/
- Congress Can Now Put a Stop to Trump’s Architectural Narcissism
Source: The UnPopulist
by Gabriel Schoenfeld“Numismatic egomania aside, the ballroom and the arch are exercises in grandiosity and vulgarity, monuments to Trump’s fragile ego, excrescences on the face of the nation’s capital city. Shubow professes to defend aesthetic standards—except, apparently, when the patron is Donald Trump. Trump may aspire to be a strongman, but he is no Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un, let alone a Hitler or a Stalin. He is an aged lame-duck president who, belying his pretensions to strength, frequently drifts off to sleep in front of television cameras. The new Democratic-controlled Congress should halt the bulldozers and cranes in their tracks and begin restoring what Trump has taken without the public’s consent.” (11/06/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/congress-can-now-put-a-stop-to-trumps
- Sumner against Populism
Source: Free Assocation
by Sheldon Richman“No one needs reminding that populism is fashionable. That might sound good to opponents of elitist authoritarianism, but it is not good. That’s not to say the latter is attractive to liberty-loving individualists who cherish the pursuit of happiness through, among other voluntary institutions, the marketplace. Not a whit. Yale Professor William Graham Sumner (1840-1910) would agree. Yet the remarkable classical-liberal sociologist insisted that populism would provide no relief whatsoever from government oppression.” (11/06/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-sumner-against-populism
- Laughing Matters
Source: Law & Liberty
by John G Grove“Norm [Macdonald] was extremely intelligent, even though his comedic approach often entailed playing the ‘dumb guy.’ He was also deeply introspective. He suffered from bowel cancer in his twenties and thought often about death, faith, and the human condition in the postmodern world. He was a devoted reader of great literature, especially Tolstoy. And of course, for over his last eight years, he waged his courageous battle with leukemia without telling anyone outside his immediate family and agent. He was a joke maker who was very familiar with the deeper questions of human life. But like most good comedians, he wasn’t out there to show off his own smarts. His intelligence manifested in his ability to puncture the stupidity around him—usually not by straightforward mocking, but by subversion.” (11/06/26)
- Ranking the Best (and Worst) Democratic Senate Candidates
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher“Some of the strongest overperformers had experience in the clergy and health care, not politics.” (11/06/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/11/06/ranking-the-best-and-worst-democratic-senate-candidates/
- Off the Rails
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler“On October 28, 69 people were killed in a train crash in the Toledo province of central Spain. The collision occurred on the high-speed line connecting Madrid with the southwestern city of Seville, just one month before a general election on November 29. It is the second disaster on the Madrid–Seville corridor this year, after a crash near Córdoba in the south in January killed 46 people. Due to its timing, the Toledo collision is likely to be even more politically contentious than the last, further diminishing Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s chances of reelection. Both tragedies suggest that a once cutting-edge rail network is now showing its age—and that successive Spanish governments have failed to invest in its maintenance.” (11/06/26)
- The Class War Midterms
Source: In These Times
by Miles Kampf-Lassin“The day after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) released a video that encapsulated the left electoral movement he helped bring to life. Set to David Bowie’s iconic song ’Starman’, the video shows Sanders clasping hands with many of the candidates he endorsed this cycle. Not only did Sens.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI), James Talarico (D-TX), Troy Jackson (D-ME) and Peggy Flanagan (D-MN) (along with more than 50 U.S. House and down-ballot victors backed by Sanders) win their races, they were instrumental in delivering Democrats’ sweeping tidal wave in this year’s midterms. Far more than just a flex, the video served as a reminder of how deeply Sanders — the iconoclast democratic socialist leader — has transformed U.S. politics over the past decade.” (11/06/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/midterms-election-democrats-bernie-sanders-democratic-socialism
- For the Democrats, now comes the hard part
Source: Noahpinion
by Noah Smith“The Dems have to figure out what they stand for, and what they want to do.” (11/06/26)
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/for-the-democrats-now-comes-the-hard
- A Billion Dollars and the Men Who Ran Israel’s Wars
Source: Antiwar.com
by Thomas S Karat“The weapons a country fights with, the software that aims them, and the officers who command them were for a century things a state owned and could not put up for sale. That arrangement is coming apart. One by one these assets are being bought by private companies, financed through public stock markets, and traded like any other holding, and the firm that has carried the process furthest spent most of its life making radios for freight trains.” (11/06/26)
- The Boogeyman Ballot
Source: Libertarian Party
by Rob Yates“Two tribes, one reflex. When we are frightened, the person who chooses differently stops being a neighbor and becomes the threat. Every uniparty election campaign in America is built to harvest it. Politics learned the curfew lesson long ago. Fear travels faster than facts, and every cycle brings a new creature under the bed with a party beside it holding a flashlight and a donation link.” (11/05/26)
- We Don’t Need Politicians to Make it So
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg“The ultimate testament to [Patrick] Stewart’s acting skill is that he made it hard not to suspend disbelief, one hour at a time, in what [Ryan] Zickgraf calls ‘authority with authoritarianism apparently filtered out.’ In the real world, we have what we need to exclude authoritarians from getting in the way of getting things done.” (11/05/26)
- The Rule of Law Will Sometimes Be Unjust. Defend It Anyway.
Source: Liberalism.org
by Michael Burger“Rules of law can never always produce justice. That’s because life really is complicated. The facts that pertain to doing true justice are unpredictable. Inevitably, even the best-designed rules of law will sometimes get it wrong, with unjust results. When that happens, the law will be an ass. So in a perfectly just world we need sometimes to ignore rules of law. We need a government, or at least agents of government (in other words, judges) who will take into account all of the truly pertinent facts, not just the facts that rules of law say are pertinent. We need a government, in other words, that is not bound by the law, to really deliver justice in a way that the law cannot. Now medieval intellectuals had a term for a ruler unbound by law: a tyrant.” (11/05/26)
https://liberalism.org/essays/the-rule-of-law-will-sometimes-be-unjust-defend-it-anyway
- Hungary’s Lesson: Beware the Dangers of Socialism
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow“With ever more Americans bizarrely rating ‘socialism’ favorably today, we should remember the high price paid by Hungarians to escape real socialism. Hungary’s tortured history reminds us of the fragility of liberty. Tragically, the Hungarian people lost their battle for freedom 70 years ago. However, their loss planted seeds for the ultimate destruction of Moscow’s satellite system and Europe’s liberation from communism.” (11/05/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/hungarys-lesson-beware-the-dangers-of-socialism/
- Could a rogue clerk bollix House control on Jan. 3? It’s not quite that simple.
Source: The Hill
by Don Wolfensberger“In a recent op-ed, President Bill Clinton’s former Treasury Secretary, Robert E. Rubin, startled me with bizarre twist on potential electoral manipulation. Like others before him, Rubin boldly suggests that President Trump and his allies could also exploit ‘a procedural loophole involving the Clerk of the House that could enable them to refuse to seat duly elected Democratic members when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3.’ … In the 19th century, the office of clerk was highly partisan, and there were several instances in which clerks simply refused to call the names of certain members thereby blocking their being sworn and seated.” (11/05/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/6198772-clerk-loophole-house-election/
- History Has Spoken Again
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis“Contrary to what we seem to think, Americans are not intrinsically or constitutionally superior to other human beings who have walked on this planet. Our country had the extremely good fortune of being founded by brilliant men who tried to establish principles that would guide the nation into freedom, virtue, and prosperity. But Americans, suffering from the same faults and foibles all humans suffer from, have rejected those principles. … Eventually, all nations, peoples, and tribes weaken or disintegrate entirely. How many Babylonians do you work with? Any Assyrians living close by? Who was the last Girgashite you met? It happens. It appears to be inevitable. Someday, the question will be, ‘How many Americans do you know?’ Nations, if they don’t disappear, always morph into something else.” (11/05/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/11/05/history-has-spoken-again-n2685926
- The good, the bad, and the vague in the new college accreditation rule
Source: Expression
by Michael Hurley“The Education Department’s final accreditation rule boosts campus speech protections in some places and invites trouble in others.” (11/05/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/the-good-the-bad-and-the-vague-in
- JFK, Assassination, and the National Security State
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Ever since the U.S. government was converted to a national-security state after World War II, the national-security branch of the government — i.e., the military and the CIA — has wielded the power of assassination. Mind you, there was no constitutional amendment authorizing the federal government to wield this omnipotent, totalitarian-like power. It just automatically came with the conversion to a national-security state, whose inherent powers include assassination.” (11/05/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/11/05/jfk-assassination-and-the-national-security-state/
- A New Foreign Policy? Yes, While We Rebuild America’s Defenses
Source: American Greatness
by Stephen Bryen“No matter what the Democrats and Republicans think, reality is fast catching up with the US and its allies. The bottom line: over the next 5 years, perhaps longer, the US will need to use extreme care when picking fights with potential adversaries; at the same time, the American and allied defense industrial base needs significant reform. Naturally, this means the US approach to Russia, Europe, Asia, and China must adjust, and the US may have to accept accommodations with potential adversaries, things it would not have done only a few years ago. The US lives with a depleted arsenal, a defense industrial base mostly incapable of mass-producing weapons that have not performed up to expectations, and it faces technological and operational challenges that mostly were not expected. During the Obama and early Biden administrations, China was not considered much of a problem.” (11/05/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/11/05/a-new-foreign-policy-yes-while-we-rebuild-americas-defenses/
- Some Initial Thoughts About the Election: Blame Trump, Tariffs, and Corruption
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“Republicans should take the war’s political consequences seriously. They should also examine the damage done by tariffs, concerns about corruption, and their own unwillingness to check the president. If their explanation for this election begins and ends with Iran, they’ll avoid confronting problems that were evident long before the war. That may make the defeat easier to explain to themselves. It won’t give voters much reason to trust them again.” (11/05/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/some-initial-thoughts-about-the-election
- From Golden State to Blackout State
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Wayne Winegarden & Kerry Jackson“By the end of 2045, ‘renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources’ must ‘supply 100% of retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers and 100% of electricity procured to serve all state agencies’ under Senate bill 100 (2018). To reach this target and maintain reliability, the state has been pairing solar power plants with battery backup systems. If all works as planned, the solar plants will provide electricity during the day, and the battery backup systems keep the lights on in the high-use evening hours when solar generators go dark. … Ensuring that there is sufficient electricity during the periods of extreme weather, not just during the expected conditions, is critical if California wants to avoid potential rolling blackouts (or worse).” (11/05/26)
https://fee.org/articles/from-golden-state-to-blackout-state/
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/06/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Shivs Hegseth in Strange Aside as GOP Knives Come Out Big Time.” (11/06/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/217676/trump-shivs-hegseth-strange-aside-gop-knives-come-big-time
- Anarcho Agenda, episode 153
Source: Anarcho Agenda
“The red blue fight is a waste of time.” (11/06/26)
https://anarchoagenda.libsyn.com/ep-153-the-red-blue-fight-is-a-waste-of-time
- System Update, 11/06/26
Source: Glenn Greenwald
“EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Flavio Bolsonaro on Leaving Brazil, Lula & More.” (11/06/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/exclusive-interview-with-flavio-bolsonaro
- The Permanent Problem, episode 22
Source: Niskanen Center
“Fragile neighborhoods and spiritual poverty, with Seth Kaplan.” (11/06/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/fragile-neighborhoods-and-spiritual-poverty-with-seth-kaplan
- CounterPunch Radio, 11/06/26
Source: CounterPunch
“Wired to Steal w/ Yoav Litvin and Ilan Pappé.” (11/06/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/11/06/wired-to-steal-w-yoav-litvin-and-ilan-pappe/
- Freakonomics Radio, episode 694
Source: Freakonomics
“Does Democracy Really Need Elections?” (11/06/26)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/does-democracy-really-need-elections/
- The Dispatch Podcast, 11/06/26
Source: The Dispatch
“An Extinction-Level Event for MAGA.” (11/06/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/an-extinction-level-event-for-maga/
- The Anarchist Experience, episode 605
Source: The Anarchist Experience
“Rich and Riley talk about the Blue Wave, national and local, and this HEADLINE: World’s largest crypto exchange hit by cyberattack.” (11/06/26)
https://theanarchistexperience.wordpress.com/2026/11/06/the-anarchist-experience-605/
- The Tom Woods Show, episode 2811
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“How Britain Became Poorer Than Mississippi.” (11/06/26)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2811-how-britain-became-poorer-than-mississippi/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/06/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Iran War Sank Trump & The Republicans — More War Will Make It Even Worse.” (11/06/26)
- Underthrow Podcast, 11/05/26
Source: Underthrow
“Think Outside the Ballot Box.” (11/05/26)
- Rising, 11/05/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar looking at how some Democrat proposals, like the billionaires tax in California, were rejected by voters despite the party making massive gains in the midterms.” (11/05/26)
- Nonzero, 11/05/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“The Age of Imperialist Realism | Robert Wright & Daniel Bessner.” (11/05/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 11/05/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Says He May Destroy the Entire Country of Iran, US Ramps Up Sanctions on Cuba, and More.” (11/05/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 11/05/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Iran Achieved One of Its Core Objectives, A Political Defeat for President Trump.” (11/05/26)
- Kibbe on Liberty, episode 410
Source: Free the People
“Good Policy Is Good Politics.” (11/05/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 11/05/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Shocking Truth About The Ukraine War, WIth Stephen Kinzer.” (11/05/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 11/05/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Throws Vance Under Bus as MAGA Crackup Over Losses Turns Vicious.” (11/05/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/217607/trump-throws-vance-bus-maga-crackup-losses-turns-vicious
- The Briefing Podcast with Michael Waldman, 11/05/26
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
“Voters Demand Change.” (11/05/26)
- Bulwark Takes, 11/05/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump’s Crushing Defeat Just Changed How the World Sees America.” (11/05/26)